We’ve even revamped our K-9 report card, now in its third year, to ensure that it is more student-focused and emphasizes ‘how’ students learn as opposed to just ‘what’ they learn. This better supports the growth and development of our students.

Yet, what sparked this interest and reflection of having me review how our division is modeling strength-based learning? It was a blog by Principal Doug Enders, specifically his December Message that I just read this morning. And once again, it reminded me the importance of the power of our language and our actions. We can always improve ourselves with hard work and effort.

I am very proud of you for not giving up, and look what you have to show for it!

Congratulations – you really used great strategies for studying, managing your time (behavior, etc.).

I want you to remember for a moment how challenging this was when you began.

Look at how far you have come!

All that hard work and effort paid off!

The next time you have a challenge like this, what will you do?

What choices did you make that you think contributed to your success?

It’s exciting to see the difference in your work now when I compare it to your earlier work.

I can see you really enjoyed learning ____.

That’s awesome, what did you do differently?

Look at your success when you try your hardest/do your best work?

How did that make you feel?

I knew you could do that! Way to go!

What was different for you today that made you work so hard?

What is your next goal?

How can you apply what you’ve just learned to….?

You took a risk and look at your results!

I would like to share your success with the rest of the class – your effort paid off!

You’re a great model.

Remember the feeling of success.

How can we transfer this effort?

When they succeed easily without effort

It’s great that you have that down. Now we need to find something a bit more challenging so you can grow.

It looks like your skills weren’t really challenged by this assignment. Sorry for wasting your time!

I don’t want you to be bored because you’re not challenging yourself.

We need to raise the bar for you now.

You’re ready for something more difficult.

What skill would you like to work on next?

What topic would you like to learn more about next?

Wow, look at the gifts you have.

Could you be our expert resource on….?How could you extend this? Take further?

Please teach this to the rest of the class/group.

What would be the next step – how can you take it further?

Find someone to help.

Create a project/research topic that demonstrates your understanding.

How can we generalize this skill to another area?

Show them the skill sequence. What’s next?

Do you feel you put forth your best effort? How can you improve on this?

Intentionally praise the effort not the product.

How can we take this in a different direction?

What would you like to do now?

What other resources are you using to promote a strengths-based learning environment? It’s always great to hear what other administrators, teachers and parents are framing their conversations and learning.

2 responses to “One Game, One Grade will NEVER define me!”

I really appreciate having the concrete examples of the Growth Minded Language Frames to support the transition from research to practice. With respect to your question asking, “What other resources are you using to promote a strengths-based learning environment?” I don’t want to self-promote but I would be remiss if I didn’t offer my book as a resource because it too, is filled with concrete examples of how to promote a strengths-based learning environment. In fact much of what you talk about in this post is reflected in my book’s title and throughout its pages. The book is published by Teachers College Press and is titled: “Resilience Begins With Beliefs: Building on Student Strengths for Success in School.” (http://www.amazon.com/Resilience-Begins-Beliefs-Building-Strengths/dp/0807754838/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392784662&sr=1-1) Needless to say, I welcome any and all feedback.